Daily Archives: September 7, 2011

LifeNews.com: A judge’s ruling striking down significant portions of a pro-life law allowing women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child prior to an abortion is getting strong support from Texas officials who are appealing the decision.

The Equal Benefits law (SB 117), authored by Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) and sponsored by Equality California, will prevent the State of California from entering into contracts in excess of $100,000 with businesses and other entities that deny equal benefits to the same-sex spouses of their employees.

The Pilot: The California Catholic Conference is urging Californians to call Gov. Jerry Brown Jr. and urge him to veto AB 499, which would allow children 12 and older to be vaccinated against sexually transmitted disease without parental consent or knowledge.

ADF Attorney Brian Raum at Townhall: What this means is that people at certain media outlets, like U.S. News and The New York Times, are putting lots of energy into creating an aura of overwhelming numbers in order to further the progress of the homosexual agenda throughout the land.

SouthBendTribune.com: A federal judge issued an order Wednesday blocking the city of South Bend from transferring property to St. Joseph’s High School, on grounds that doing so would violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Christian Newswire: The organizers of the prayer service are deeply troubled that Mayor Bloomberg has banned all prayer, public expressions of faith and clergy at the Sunday 9/11 Memorial Service.
One of the leaders of the prayer service, Rev. Patrick Mahoney, has contacted New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly through his attorney to help facilitate the permit process.

TCPalm.com: The Children’s Services Council of St. Lucie County’s regular monthly meeting is expected to generate more interest than usual Thursday as council board members decide whether to retain Planned Parenthood as the organization’s teen services provider.

CNN.com: Liang Wengen, chairman of construction company Sany, topped this year’s list with a fortune worth about $11 billion. He is now one of 271 US dollar billionaires on the list – up from 130 in 2009 – meaning China is now second only to the United States by this measure.

The Independent: A small town on the Spanish resort island of Mallorca has banned women from wearing burkas or face-covering Islamic veils in public places, even though only two women living there are known to do so.

EUobserver.com: The Dutch government has proposed that highly indebted states be put into “guardianship”, with spending decisions seized from the elected government and placed under the direct control of a European commissioner

The court said the law discriminates against unmarried couples, and gave the province one year to change it.

ENInews: In a test case of religious intolerance in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, an Indonesian mayor is defying court rulings by pushing for a decree to block Christians from opening churches on streets with Islamic names.

Thestar.com: Walking around naked is legal in the city under most circumstances, but a city supervisor concerned about public health and sanitation introduced legislation Tuesday that would require the clothing averse to put a cloth or other barrier under their bottoms if they take a seat in public.

Examiner.com: On September 3rd, Mayor Bloomberg of New York City signed into law the Workplace Religious Freedoms Act, making the municipality the first in the country to institute religious-based protections for public workers.

Erik Stanley at the Speak Up Movement Church Blog: The realm of the Church is being invaded by the realm of the political today. This might seem like a strange statement, but consider this example . . .

Fox News: Republicans have decided they’re not going to give a rebuttal to President Obama’s jobs speech later this week, a decision House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi took as a high affront to the White House.

The Weekly Standard: In Muslim-majority Kosovo last week, as the fasting month of Ramadan came to an end and families prepared for the reopening of public schools, the parliamentary Assembly of the Republic rendered its judgment on a controversy that has agitated the country for more than a year: It voted not to permit the Islamic headscarf (hijab) or any religious instruction in public schools.

Examiner.com: The 12,000 square foot facility on Opdyke Road has a deed restriction designating it for office, retail or restaurant use only. Planned Parenthood purchased the property in November of 2010 without disclosing to the landowner what purpose they intended to use the property for.

KAKE.com: A Planned Parenthood official says Kansas has forwarded about $58,000 in federal funds, part of a larger amount that’s the subject of a lawsuit.

Physorg.com: said David Schramm, assistant professor in Human Development and Family Studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. “The study confirms that low income does have a negative impact on marital quality, but there are additional factors as well. The relationship between income and marital satisfaction is influenced by other issues, including whether or not the couple receives some form of government assistance.” . . . | David G. Schramm and V. William Harris, “Marital Quality and Income: An Examination of the Influence of Government Assistance,” 32 Journal of Family and Economic Issues 437-448 (Sept. 2011)

Christian Concern: Controversial measures that would have given unmarried couples the same rights as married couples have now been rejected.

The Christian Institute: People using public services should not have to answer “intrusive” equality questionnaires on subjects like sexual orientation, a government minister has said.

The Charlotte Post : Republican lawmakers are lining up black support for a constitutional referendum to ban same-sex marriage.

Montana residents Doug Lair and Steve Dogiakos, and American Tradition Partnership PAC want to give a couple hundred dollars in contributions to candidates that they like for the Montana State House. Montana, however, limits their contributions to just $160, which is among the lowest limits in the country. The Lake County Republicans and the Beaverhead County Republicans, meanwhile, just want to make an $800 contribution to Republican candidates running for state office.

Patrick Parkinson at SMH.com.au: But we need to do more than this. We need to look afresh at the overwhelming evidence that children do best in families with two married parents. It is not the wedding ring that does it. What seems to make the difference is that process of clear decision and public commitment. The promise to commit for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health really matters when the ”worse” happens, when money is tight, and when sickness strikes. Of course it is not a guarantee, but the likelihood that a non-marital relationship with children will break down is many times higher than for marriages.

Houston Chronicle: The anti-abortion group Ohio Right to Life is throwing its support behind a ballot issue that seeks to keep the government from requiring people to buy health insurance.

LifeNews.com: Louisiana state health officials have closed for good the Gentilly Medical Clinic for Women abortion business after it failed to respond to actions the state took to revoke its medical license for repeated violations.

Jacob Sullum at Reason Magazine: Although Perry presumably disagrees with Sparks’ legal analysis, it does not depend on an invented, privacy-based right to abortion. Unless Perry rejects federal judicial review of state law altogether, he has to concede that some abortion regulations would be unconstitutional even without Roe. Counterintuitively, an outright ban might be more likely to pass muster than regulations like these.

The Washington Post: New data from the Public Religion Research Institute shows, however, that this Republican campaign dynamic-opposition to same-sex marriage as a litmus test of conservative authenticity-has waning appeal to younger Republicans now, and promises to lose steam in years to come. Our new poll, “Millennials, Religion and Gay & Lesbian Issues,” released on August 29, shows a 20-point generation gap between millennials (age 18 to 29) and seniors (age 65 and up) on a whole range of gay and lesbian issues.

Middle East Forum: This series was developed in order to collate some—by no means all—of the foulest instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It serves two purposes . . . Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and even throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it is clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Sharia, or the supremacist culture borne of it.

SeattlePi.com: It used to be simpler. Protestants were the majority, and candidates could show their piety just by attending church. Now, politicians are navigating a landscape in which rifts over faith and policy have become chasms. An outlook that appeals to one group enrages another. Campaigns are desperate to find language generic enough for a broad constituency that also conveys an unshakable faith.

On Top Magazine :: “Gay & Lesbian News”: The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency under the direction of the department of Health and Human Services (HHS), on Wednesday pledged $248,000 toward LGBT health centers.

SCO News: Cardinal Keith O’Brien will tell Scottish politicians this evening that ‘the family and marriage existed before the State and are built on the union between a man and a woman.’

Texas Lawyer: Patel took the leap in February after receiving an enticing offer from the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law, where he’d received his J.D. in 2006. The school offered Patel a spot in its incubator — a program that helps recent graduates establish solo practices while also encouraging free or low-cost legal services to underserved communities.

OneNewsNow.com: Leaders of the personhood movement are taking issue with a statement made by presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the Labor Day forum in South Carolina.

NewsObserver.com: House Democrats amplified efforts Tuesday to rally opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. They said its far-reaching effects would curtail job creation, erode domestic violence protections and jeopardize domestic partner benefits.

CNBC: We asked several CEOs leading up to the speech what bold steps Obama could take to reduce the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt: The Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria has announced plans to sue Prime Minister Essam Sharaf for failing to reveal who was behind he New Years Eve church bombing that left 23 Copts dead on 1 January, said a church official on Tuesday.

LifeSiteNews.com: Fox News’ parent company, the conservative-leaning, Rupert Mordoch-owned News Corporation, is preparing to publish a magazine devoted to homosexual “marriage” in the wake of its legalization in New York. The September 29 debut of “WEDDING Pride” . . .

Daily Mail: It’s deeply worrying to discover that since 2009 – when the BBC and liberal establishment began in earnest their noisy pro-euthanasia campaign – Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer has chosen to take no action against 31 people suspected of helping another to end their life.

LifeSiteNews.com: A total of 15 lawmakers from Poland’s governing coalition are being threatened with a fine for breaking with the party line and voting in favor of a bill that would have totally banned abortion.

Catholic Culture: Wealthy Pakistanis, including Christians, are being kidnapped by members of al-Qaida in order to gain ransom money for funding their operations, according to the national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

LifeNews.com: Edward Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a National Review writer, wrote an essay for Public Discourse as part of its 2012 Election Symposium. The article has Whelan saying the GOP nominee should “welcome the battle over the Supreme Court, determine to fight hard for high-quality justices, frame the argument for why abortion policy should be restored to the democratic processes and commit to select senior legal leaders who fully embrace their goals and priorities.”

LifeNews.com: The Obama administration recently posted a new document to the White House web site touting its efforts to combat sex trafficking in the United States. But the document ignores Planned Parenthood — the abortion business where undercover investigations earlier this year revealed staff willing to arrange for abortions for sex traffickers.

LifeNews.com: At least three non-government organizations have been found to be espousing the legalization of abortion in the Philippines, as senators resumed floor debates on the controversial “reproductive health” (RH) bill Monday.

LifeNews.com: A top pro-life organization is encouraging pro-life advocates to contact the Obama administration and urge it to protect conscience rights for organizations that don’t want to be involved in promoting abortion, drugs that can cause abortions and birth control.

Carrie Severino at Bench Memos – National Review Online: This particular case is emblematic of a much larger public-policy problem that a growing number of high-profile organizations and individuals, on the right and the left, have been highlighting. It is often called “over-criminalization,” but it might as well be thrown in with the problem of over-regulation and federal overreach. According to this Federalist Society study, the federal criminal code has exploded in recent decades. As of 2004, there were “over 4,000 offenses that carry criminal penalties in the United States Code

Reuters: With the Senate set to vote on just one judicial nominee as it returns to work on Tuesday, President Obama faces an uphill fight to get federal judges approved and ease a backlog of cases in the courts.

The Commercial Appeal: The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Memphis federal judge Bernice Bouie Donald to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

KansasCity.com: That leaves the Missouri Supreme Court as the last hope for adult business owners, who argue the restrictions — which prohibit nudity and limit hours of operation for seminude establishments, among other things — have unconstitutionally devastated their industry.

KGWN: Twenty-five Republicans and two Democrats have formed a Colorado Legislative Prayer Caucus aimed at protecting Judeo-Christian beliefs.

WSLS 10: As we’ve reported, the ACLU sent a letter to Pittsylvania County Supervisors, saying sectarian prayers by a government body violates the first amendment.

The Republic: Officials from a former charter school in Nampa are asking a full panel of federal appeals court judges to reconsider an earlier ruling that dismissed the school’s lawsuit against Idaho.

Religion Clause: According to the Sudan Tribune, the Justice Minister said that Article 8 (1) of the Transitional Constitution states clearly that religion and state are be separate, while paragraph (2) provides that all religions are to be treated equally.

Religion Clause: The Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute yesterday released a new report titled What It Means to be an American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America Ten Years after 9/11. Much of the 41-page report focuses on mixed attitudes of Americans toward Muslims. Here is an excerpt . . .

Heritage Foundation, The Foundry: Wonder who’s to blame for today’s stagnant economy? Look no further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to see where the buck ought to stop. Though President Barack Obama constantly points fingers at others for America’s economic woes, his policies are to blame for preventing the U.S. economy from getting back on track. Before you watch President Obama present his latest jobs plan in his speech on Thursday, be sure you know the four major measures he has taken to prevent job growth in America:

Christianity Today: ADF attorney Austin Nimocks said that if proponents of a proposition cannot defend it in court, then the state officials could effectively veto propositions. “Voters should not be left without any defense just because their officials refused to defend them,” Nimocks said. “Ultimately, this hearing concerns whether the people of California who voted for Proposition 8 will be defended at all.” Members of the California Supreme Court seemed sympathetic to the ADF’s argument.

Sheila Liaugminas at MercatorNet.com: And far beyond, says the Alliance Defense Fund, part of the team defending their standing. There’s a lot at stake here. • The hearing concerns whether the people of California who voted for Proposition 8 will be defended at all. • A federal court decision overturning Proposition 8 would bring additional years of chaos and confusion in the legal battle to preserve marriage. • Such a decision could impact marriage laws in up to 44 other states—including the 29 other states where voters overwhelmingly adopted state constitutional amendments—along with eliminating the right of Californians to reaffirm marriage in their state constitution.

LifeSiteNews.com: Harold Cassidy, an attorney affiliated with the Alliance Defense Fund, filed the appeal to the 8th Circuit on behalf of a group of pregnancy centers that successfully intervened in the suit to protect the interest of women . . . ADF Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden said the court was right to uphold informing women of “an undisputed biological fact.” “A child’s life is worth more than Planned Parenthood’s bottom line,” said Aden. “Planned Parenthood and other proponents of death work diligently to restrict the information mothers have about abortion and the life within them.”

This amount has to cover the government’s official debt plus the present value of all future government purchases of goods and services (discretionary spending). If it doesn’t, the difference that’s not covered is called the fiscal gap.

Thomson Reuters : The Supreme Court of California appeared sympathetic to allowing gay marriage opponents to defend the state’s same-sex wedding ban in court, a crucial step in a case that could set national precedent . . . For the opponents of gay marriage: James Campbell of Alliance Defense Fund; Charles Cooper, Nicole Moss, Jesse Panuccio, David Thompson and Peter Patterson of Cooper & Kirk; Andrew Pugno; Brian Raum.

AP: Chinese millionaire Su builds skyscrapers in Beijing and is one of the people powering China’s economy on its path to becoming the world’s biggest.

AP: Britain’s House of Commons has rejected a proposal to bar abortion providers from counseling women about their decisions on whether to terminate their pregnancies.

AP: The U.S. has tumbled further down a global ranking of the world’s most competitive economies, landing at fifth place because of its huge deficits and declining public faith in government, a global economic group said Wednesday.

SCOTUSblog: Issue(s): Whether the Stolen Valor Act, 18 U.S.C. § 704(b), which makes it a crime to “falsely represent” that you “have been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States,” is …

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: “The ACLU cannot mask its attempts to turn school computers into porn portals for children by expressing a supposed concern for censorship,” says Jeremy Tedesco, legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. “Parents expect schools to be places where their children learn–not places where they access pornography.”

Forbes: After a particularly aggressive patdown in March that might be better termed a feel-up, advice blogger Amy Alkon graphically described how she sobbed loudly while a TSA agent put her hands “into” her — four times. She screamed “You raped me” after the LAX patdown and took the agent’s name with plans to file charges of sexual assault. Those plans fell through after consulting an attorney, but she did blog about it and included the agent’s name, thereby inflicting her own assault — on the agent’s Google search results.

India Today: Terror struck Delhi when a powerful bomb placed in a briefcase ripped through a crowded reception area at the entrance of the Delhi High Court on Wednesday morning, killing 11 people and leaving more than 80 injured. This is the second blast outside Delhi HC since May.

Law, David S. and Versteeg, Mila, The Declining Influence of the United States Constitution (September 6, 2011). Washington University in St. Louis Legal Studies Research Paper, Forthcoming; Virginia Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1923556